Check Point Security Gateway stores fw.log locally

I came across an issue where the Check Point Security Gateway consistently stored the firewall logs locally as well as forwarding them to the Security Management server.
As a result the /var/log partition reached 100%.

Thinking this was the result of the Security Gateway having lost connection with the SM at some point (which makes it stores the log files locally) I tried approaching the issue by

installing a policy

Running the command cpstart

Check connection with SM

I could also see the logs in SmartView Tracker and also confirm the SG had established a connection with the SM (Port TCP/257 is used for log transfer)